StephenH

Around here (Dallas suburb) if you lay an old bike or washing machine or things like that out in front of the house, there are some guys cruising the neighborhoods picking up scrap like that. Find one of them, tell 'em what you're after, and if you're willing to pay more than scrap price, you're in business. (if they don't pick it up, the city "big stuff" truck picks it up).

I don't think they'll let you roam the local dump looking for crap, especially since they're burying it with a bulldozer as it's being dumped. That might work in some places, but not here. And the "recycle" stuff doesn't go there anyway.

Or, go to the thrift stores, like Goodwill, Salvation Army, see what they have.

Or, look up police auctions. The one I went to had a bunch of Walmart-type bikes that sold for around $5 each. Which is sort of a ripoff, still, but anyway, it's not too bad.

Or, put an ad in Craigslist saying what you want and what you want it for. Some of us have old junk in the garage that we'll never throw away, but if someone asked, it's theirs free, too.

You might also check with smaller operators of recycled metal places, I see a few that say "We buy cans", and they might be glad to unload bikes worth $1 as scrap for $5 or so.